My last few trips to Ottawa I have also found myself inexorably drawn back to the world-class Canadian War Museum where I guarantee you'll be mesmerized, especially by a WWII Spitfire fighter plane and Hitler's bullet-riddled black limousine.

The museum is a timeless reminder that Canadian soldiers are courageous heroes.

You'll also see the Cold War "Fruit Machine," a tiny electropsychometer - or E-meter, no bigger than Germany's infamous Enigma code machine - primarily used by American and Canadian intelligence to determine if a person was gay.

The RCMP collected files on over 9,000 suspected homos, and the E-meter is still being used to this day by the Church of Scientology.

Ovar 9000 eh. LOL.

Last edited by Sponge on Thu Aug 14, 2008 6:29 am, edited 2 times in total.

The post-war era of the 1950s and 1960s was an era of great paranoia. A machine called an “electro-psychometer” (similar to a lie detector) was employed to determine the sexual orientation of civil servants. In this very conservative era homosexuality was a taboo and it was assumed knowledge of that fact could be used against an individual and force this person to collaborate with the enemy. The government intended to protect itself and subjected hundreds of civil servants to tests on this notoriously unreliable device, also referred to as the “fruit machine”.

Is the "M" on the box for "Matheson"? Do you have a higher resolution photo?

I think "Have you ever practiced Homosexuality?" is on the Staff Sec Check as well as the Joberg. I think the correct answer is "suck my dick" -- even funnier coming from a woman.

I was reading up on the Gabe Williams case again . Apparently Jennifer Stuart was questioned about her sexual activity on the meter and nothing came up. I wonder if Gabe ever got in session? I used to assume that if he had only gotten his ruds flown, all this could have been brought up and handled before it evolved into the mess it became. Maybe I was wrong about that. But having been on staff at MV, I don't think any staff got in session unless they paid for it.

You're so screwed, so screwed, the Way to Slappiness is the way to flappiness.

Sponge, this could be a HUGE news story. If critics can show that LRH copied this machine, then we show that the BT/Engram lie detection process known as auditing, the basis of Scientology , was stolen from the US/UK's search for homosexuals -- "inverts" in the UK.

It is highly possible that LRH was first exposed to, and screened, on this machine when he did his three month Intelligence course at Yale in 1944 as the US and UK shared their technologies in WWII. Hubbard may have also found this device when he was malingering at Oak Knoll Naval Hospital.

If we can find a wheatstone bridge on a patent for this device and a description of it detecting resistance in the skin, I will personally go to the US Patent Office and ask for Scientology's patents on the E-Meter to be voided based upon prior art. I will argue that LRH failed to disclose prior art when he filed for his patent. He did not disclose Matheson's patent, but he did, I believe, have a patent assignment from Volney Matheson -- who may not be the true inventor of the E-Meter as claimed. This too may have been a Scientology red herring just like Meade Emory.

Yes - that's the Mathison logo. The meter in the photo is a Mathison electropsychometer from the 50ies. This looks very much like one of the early meters in use in Scientology. Mathison made plenty of models that were a variation of the same theme which looked almost the same. You can find a couple of them in the "History of the E-meter" -section of Introducing the E-Meter book, IIRC. (Does anyone here have a copy of the book?)

This story certainly starts to shed some light on why LRH "dumped Mathison" and stopped using e-meters for a year or two in the mid-50ies using the cover-up story that "Mathison's meters were getting too complicated to be useful." It seems Mathison was getting a better deal making meters for the government, so perhaps he dumped Hubbard instead.

A short history of the Church of David Miscavige: From the fastest growing religion in the world to the fastest shrinking cult in the world in less than 20 years.

Bigger image of the "Fruit Machine" e-meter....http://i34.photobucket .com/albums/d104/jpack04/emeter.jpg
The image link censor currently imposed by Andreas for some image hosting sites prevents me from posting the link unbroken and I cannot be arsed to rehost it somewhere else to get round the censor. Copy the above link and remove the space before the .com.

marlysfan wrote:Sigh...what happened to the good ole days when people relied on their innate sense of gaydar?

Seriously, though, interesting stuff. Thanks for posting it, Sponge.

L

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GaydarIllustration of a gaydar machine from The Fruit Machine gay club at England's largest gay dance venue Heaven in London (circa 1992). Fruit Machines were actual gaydar devices built to detect gays in the Canadian Civil Service from 1950-1973.

The patent on the original E-meter expired long ago, so prior art is a moot point. The name "E-meter" is trademarked, and the squirrel group RTC still enforces this. The "quantum" function is patented also. Also, "Auto-TA" (centers the needle automatically) is patented I think, although it is only implemented on non-church meters at this point. Maybe the Ultra-8 has it -- I guess we will find out.

Remember that the e-meter had briefly fallen out of favor until Ron brought it back after he won his fight with Volney.

You're so screwed, so screwed, the Way to Slappiness is the way to flappiness.

When I first saw those joberg se check questions, I too wondered about all the "practice" that they think goes into ones sexuality. I have never had to practice being hetero, but that said, am a lousy lover....of course I was being facetious.